


The inebriating smell of purple

by MisanthropyMuse



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And lords from the North, Brief mention of Ashara's friends, F/M, Harrenhal, Matchmaker Brandon, Modern Westeros, Shy Eddard, Stark Siblings - Freeform, Tourney at Harrenhal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 13:01:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13147242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisanthropyMuse/pseuds/MisanthropyMuse
Summary: [ASOIAF Rare Pair Secret Santa]Sort of modern take of the dance at the Tourney at Harrenhal.Eddard makes a fool of himself, but Ashara finds it somehow very endearing.





	The inebriating smell of purple

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Delaney, for the asoiaf rare pair secret santa.  
> Hope you had a nice holiday and thank you for giving me the chance to finally write something about this amazing pairing.  
> (and sorry for the delay). ♥

His father had insisted.

Rickard Stark was a loving father, but he could be unbearably stubborn at times, and he tended to become a lot more severe than usual when his children tried to oppose him.

«Mr Whent invited all of us. It would be rude to decline now, and you all need to be introduced to the business leaders,» he had repeated every time Eddard had asked him if he could stay home instead of going to Harrentown with the family.

He had lost, eventually, of course, so now he was stuck in a huge and grim mansion called Harrenhal. It was a massive antique castle renovated with all the latest commodities. Mr Whent spared no expenses, he had swimming pools, an indoor gym, soccer and tennis fields and even a golf course in the immense park of the house, and inside there were countless sitting rooms, dozens of en suite bedrooms and at least three kitchens. The biggest house Eddard had ever seen, but still it managed to be so full with people it was impossible to find a quiet spot anywhere.

The rich business man had invited all the most successful people in Westeros to spend a long weekend there. The reason had been pretty vague, something about introducing his five children to the Westerosi elite, on the day of his youngest daughter eighteenth birthday, but many believed he was looking to make some new investments and wanted to choose the right candidate in person.

It was only the first night and Eddard was already exhausted.

He and his siblings had somehow managed to find a free couch in a sitting room that seemed slightly quieter than the rest, but it was still too much for him. He sighed, pouring another glass of wine from the bottle they had stolen from the buffet. At his side, Lyanna was laughing at something Brandon had said and Benjen was sipping tentatively on his glass of wine, free to drink away from his parents eyes for the first time.

«Ned, you’ve been awfully quiet even for your standards tonight,» Brandon said, leaning over Lyanna to punch his shoulder.

Lyanna scoffed. «Don’t say that, Bran. He’s managed to be silent for much longer. I think I might have seen him talk to someone he didn’t know, earlier,» she teased.

«I just don’t have anything to say,» Eddard mumbled, lowering his eyes.

«Haven’t you eyed anyone promising? Dad would love if you’d find a girlfriend among these people,» Brandon replied with a grin, looking around the room filled with middle age women in cocktail dresses bragging about their husbands’ and sons’ achievements.

«What about you? Or have you finally decided to do something about Barbrey?» Eddard shot back.

Brandon blushed. «We still need to figure it out. You know dad doesn’t like her family.»

«Maybe you should joke less and think more, then,» Eddard said, more harshly than he intended, as he got up from the couch. «The wine’s finished, I’ll go get another bottle,» he excused himself brusquely. As he strode away from the room, he sighed again, exasperated and disappointed in his own behaviour. It wasn’t fair to bring out his annoyance on his brother, since they were all stuck there together, but he couldn’t help envying him for his ability to make light of every situation, while Eddard only seemed to get rid of his annoyance when apathy took over.

He wandered through countless halls and various rooms, looking for a buffet table reasonably free so that he could take a bottle unseen. He considered just asking a waiter for it, he was a guest after all, but he didn't have the gall to.

After a while, he stopped to lean against a wall in a miraculously empty passageway and saw a girl with long dark hair coming down the hall. At first he though she was Lyanna, sent after him by his brother, but soon enough he noticed she was taller than his sister, and while little Lyanna usually marched as a clumsy soldier, with long steps and her arms moving rigidly at her sides, this woman had a sway in her step that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a runway.

She made a small polite smile as she approached, to which Eddard responded by lowering his eyes, but not before having noticed the deep shade of purple of her eyes. Stupidly, he bowed his head as she walked past him. The long billowing skirt of her dress swung around her, sending out light whiffs of a strange perfume, briny and earthy at the same time.

Eddard looked up to see her walk into a toilette just a bit further down the corridor.

He could have walked away then, before she went out again, saving himself some embarrassment, but instead he waited, perfectly aware of how awkward it was but somehow incapable of listening to his good sense.

A few minutes went by, more than five but probably less than ten, and she walked out of the bathroom. Her surprise in seeing that Eddard was still there was clear enough before she could hide it.

«Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t think you had to go,» she said apologetically, pointing at the room behind her.

Ned shook his head. «I didn’t. I was just...» he hesitated, unsure of how to explain his reason for being there without sounding weird. «Enjoying the quiet,» he got out eventually, cringing internally when her kind smile turned ever so slightly concerned.

«Well, you picked the right spot,» she said anyway with a soft chuckle «You’ll want to stay here for a while. They’re setting up a disco in the main hall.»

His eyes widened in dismay. «Can this weekend get any worse?» he mumbled. This time, she laughed at loud.

«Don’t you think it’s a bit early to say that? Good luck for the next two days,» she laughed.

Eddard frowned at her, more perplexed than angry. He thought she’d go along well with Brandon.

«Thanks,» he said coldly. He wanted to say something else, something witty or funny, but nothing came to his mind, and so he kept quiet. As always.

She made a little smile again that Ned read as a pitying one. «See you in the next quiet space,» she said with a shrug when the moment of silence started to become a bit too awkward.

«See you,» he muttered as she left. He watched walk away, following her swaying dress from room to room until she disappeared in the crowd, and he felt the intense wish of being swallowed by the wall behind him and disappearing forever. He hated his shyness and social ineptitude, and he hated it all the more when he thought of how Brandon would have acted in his place.

He imagined him effortlessly flirting with that gorgeous woman, making her smile without pity and blush and laugh. He clenched his fists and shook his head, exhaling heavily through his nose. Abruptly, he turned around and got back to his search for a now sorely needed bottle of wine.

He grabbed one from a tall and thin table in the corner of a room and drank from it as he tried to find his way back to his siblings, so eagerly that soon he had to take another.

Once again he stumbled from sitting room to living room to dining room, trying and failing to find some sense in their order and disposition, and most importantly taking care to hide his face from people who might recognise him.

He saw the Mormonts, Maege with two little girls playing at her feet as she talked with her nephew Jorah. Despite the warm weather, they all had some kind of fur on their clothes. Eddard thought of how glad his father would be if he stopped to ask them about their business and felt a bit guilty as he turned the other way. He avoided a room filled with Manderlys, since Wyman and his sons took so much space it would be impossible for Eddard to pass unnoticed. They all had the logo of their fish farming company, a white and green merman branding a trident, embroidered in bright colours on the back of their suit jackets.

He almost didn’t see Roose Bolton, a ghost of white and pale pink that almost merged with the wall, but luckily he was talking to Rodrik Ryswell, so that Eddard could avoid both of them at once. He knew that one of the reasons his father didn’t like the Ryswells was because they had always preferred buying Bolton’s leather and never agreed to work with Rickard on a line of products for equitation.

Barbrey’s older sister was even married to Roose. Eddard knew she was currently at home in Dreadfort, too heavily pregnant to move, with her sister to assist her, when she wasn’t sneaking out to see Brandon in secret.

As he thought about it, he felt a pang of guilt for what he said to Brandon earlier. He knew he was just trying to make it easier for everyone and it wasn’t fair to bring up such a hurtful subject.

He shook his regret away, trying to focus on finding his siblings again, but soon he realised he was lost. All sitting rooms looked pretty much the same, and there was too much people around to remember who was in it with them.

After a while, he found himself in the first completely empty room he had seen since he walked into the mansion. Used paper plates and half empty glasses were scattered on every surface, as if abandoned in a rush. Someone had left their jacket on a sofa. Perplexed, Eddard walked into a second room in a similar state, and then a third and a fourth and he quickly lost count, as his concern and confusion grew. He noticed a scarf and a handbag and a hat. He was about to start panicking when he started hearing a muffled rhythmic music, coming from a distance. He followed the sound from room to room, and even though he had realised what had happened, his worry never subsided.

On the contrary, the knowledge of what he was walking into was worse than any catastrophic scenario he could have imagined.

As the music grew louder, he started hearing a low buzz of chatter, interrupted occasionally by laughter and short bursts of singing. He had finished the second bottle of wine by the time he finally emerged into the ballroom.

An immense vaulted hall that vaguely reminded him the basketball court at his high school, but with more luxurious bleachers on the sides. A low and wide two-storied dais ran all around the heptagonal room, hosting small round tables with matching chairs, while a few hundreds of people danced on the polished wooden floor in the centre. Along one wall, the dais had been turned into a stage, with a huge console and a DJ. In the corner opposite from it, there was a bar, crowded with people in line for drinks.

Strobe lights flashed in white, purple, blue, green and red all across the room, reflected by several huge crystal chandeliers, and a strip of cold white led lights ran all along the podiums, highlighting their edges and the stairs to climb them.

Eddard started to walk carefully along them, looking up and around the room in search of familiar faces, winching every time the dancing crowd shouted and feeling a bit nauseated by the mix of fast cadenced music and flashing lights.

Finally, after what felt like ages to him, he found Benjen and Lyanna sitting at a table in one of the corners. He looked around, but Brandon was nowhere to be seen.

«Hey!» he shouted when he reached them. Lyanna jumped and snapped around, terrified for a second before he recognised Eddard.

«For fuck’s sake, Ned!» she exclaimed. «Where in the seven hells have you been?»

«Mind you language, Lya,» he scolded her and she rolled her eyes. «I got lost. This place is a damn labyrinth,» he replied anyway, sitting down next to her. On the other side of the table, Benjen was staring at the crowd with glassy unfocused eyes, gaping slightly.

«What happened?» Eddard asked, pointing at him.

Lyanna laughed. «He downed half of Brandon’s drink thinking it was juice. I guess he’s drunk now.» She shrugged as Eddard frowned.

«Where’s Brandon?»

Lyanna shrugged again. «He went dancing a while ago.»

«Have you been drinking?» he asked, squinting at his sister. She snorted.

«He left before I could, and I couldn’t leave Benjen alone,» she said with a sarcastic sigh. «But if you’re here now, can I go get a drink?» she asked then, with a wolfish grin.

«It’s not like I can forbid anything to you, can I?» Eddard replied rolling his eyes, and she sprinted away towards the bar. He watched her get in line and then turned to the dance floor, searching for his brother’s irresponsible head. Before he could find it, though, he spotted something way more interesting.

The girl from the toilet debacle was dancing close to a tall man with pale blond hair. She was close enough to Eddard’s table he could see her smiling fondly at the guy, but also to notice that she was acting more goofy than seductive. She kept at least a foot away from him, though, no part of their bodies was touching, and they were both showing off weird dancing moves to each other. Eddard felt strangely relieved by it, even though it should be none of his concern who she danced with. He didn’t even know her name, and there was no way she could be interested in him.

He watched her for a while, and he didn’t notice the stupid smile on his own face until she looked up from her friend and her eyes landed right on Eddard. Despite the frantic lighting, she seemed to recognise him, her eyes widened in surprise and she smiled, to which Eddard responded by blushing violently and turning his face away so quickly his neck cracked.

And to add insult to injury, Brandon chose to appear next to the table right as Eddard turned around. The two brothers met eyes and Brandon smiled and slightly frowned.

«What are you doing?»

Eddard felt his cheeks burning. «What were _you_ doing, leaving Ben and Lya here all alone!»

Brandon rolled his eyes huffed as he sat down. «Can you stop treating me like an ass, at least for today? I didn’t go far and I never let them out of sight. I’m not an idiot, despite what you might think.» His voice was harsh, but his eyes betrayed the hurt behind it.

Eddard lowered his eyes and sighed. «I’m sorry,» he said. «I shouldn’t have said that about Barbrey before, and I shouldn’t have walked away like that.»

Brandon smiled a little. «And I shouldn’t have teased you. I know it’s harder for you to be here.»

Eddard raised his head and mirrored his brother’s smile. They didn’t need to say anything more to know it was all okay again. Suddenly, Brandon grinned.

«Can you tell me what was that before, though?» he asked.

Blushing again, Ned forced himself to tell him what had happened after he wandered off. Brandon tried not to laugh, he really did, but in the end he couldn’t hold back any more.

«Oh, Ned,» he said, wiping a tear from one of his eyes. «I don’t want to go there again but, come on, bro. You didn’t even get her name.»

«I’m not like you or Robert. I can’t talk to girls. I just can’t,» Eddard whined, putting his face in his hands.

«But what was her face like when she saw you here?»

«I don’t know, I think she was surprised, but she smiled...»

Brandon raised his hands and his eyebrows, as to silently ask his brother what the hell he was waiting for.

«What am I supposed to do?» Eddard turned to look for her in the crowd again. Now she was dancing with a guy with pitch black hair and olive skin. There was another girl with them, who had the same features as the guy and was hugging a handsome man with long silver hair.

«Can you see her?» Eddard asked Brandon. «With the Dornish couple and the blond guy.»

«Isn’t that Rhaegar Targaryen? The other two must be Martells. I heard he married the youngest one,» Brandon said.

Eddard shrugged, not knowing and not caring about who any of them was. «They look pretty close,» he muttered in disappointment, but Brandon scoffed.

«They look like close friends. Trust me, I can tell when people are flirting.»

They stared at them for a while, watching as a man with dark red hair joined them, grabbing the purple eyed girl by the waist and making her startle and laugh. She leaned in to say something at his hear and he briefly frowned at the Targaryen before shrugging.

«Another friend,» Brandon declared. «Maybe gay,» he added as the redhead started dancing closer to the Martell guy than either of the girls.

Eddard laughed sourly. «How can you even tell? She might be dating any of them, or anyone else in the world. Have you seen how pretty she is?»

Before Brandon could say anything, she turned in her dancing and looked at Eddard again. She tilted her head on the side and smiled, without stopping. Ned could feel his heart pounding in his throat and his entire face was on fire.

«She’s pretty hot,» Brandon agreed. When Eddard turned to look at him, his grin was between amusement and pity. «And she wants you to go there.»

Ned looked back at the dance floor and this time she waved a hand at him. A small gesture, barely visible, but it sent Eddard’s stomach into a frenzy nonetheless. Martell saw her and threw a glance at Eddard before saying something in her ear. She nodded without losing eye contact with Ned, still smiling, bringing the hand she had waved to run through her hair.

«I swear to the gods, brother, I’ll fucking drag you there if you’re not going.»

The younger Stark gaped at his brother for a moment. «Go!» Brandon pushed him out of his chair.

Eddard saw the girl laugh as he got up and stumbled his way down the dais, struggling to walk in the dim light without losing her in the crowd.

He pushed through dancing people, with sorry’s and excuse me’s, trying not to spill anyone’s drink. His hands were trembling so hard he was afraid they’d fall off, and his stomach hadn’t burned this much in ages.

He lost her for a moment, but them she reappeared at the end of a sudden clearing. Too busy staring at her to notice the ground, he stepped on a half full paper cup, but for once he didn’t stop or stumble. Beaming, she stepped forward to meet him before he reached her.

«Hey,» she said.

«Hey.»

«What about your quiet space?»

«It got a bit too quiet after a while.» ‘ _Without you_ ’ he wanted to add, but he thought it was a bit too soon for that.

«Lucky me then,» she replied with a little shrug. «Who was your friend on the dais?» she asked, and his stomach dropped, the ache replaced with a sudden unbearable weight.

«He’s my brother,» he said hesitantly. He knew she couldn’t have been interested in him, when Brandon was sitting next to him. Every girl had always liked him best, why would she be any different?

He was so caught up in his own paranoia he didn’t even get her response.

«What?»

«I said, remind me to thank him later.» For a moment, her little smile, infused with sweet amusement, shone more brightly than any light in the room. She took his hand and led him away from Brandon and her friends into the thick of the crowd, so close to the stage the music was deafening. There, she laced her hands around his neck and tried to dance on him. Her closeness made him blush and she laughed fondly at his clumsiness. She took him by the waist and pushed him around, showing him how to move his feet and his hips. He stumbled, stepped on her, bumped their shoulders and theirs heads, but she never seemed to mind. She laughed and laughed and kept trying and dancing, until he started to get used to it.

«See, you’re getting it,» she said in his ear. He felt his lobe burning where she had briefly brushed her lips. She had a hand on his neck and instinctively he brought one on her waist.

Right in that moment, the DJ changed the music into a slower melody. He didn’t know the song, but it was clear it was some sort of romantic ballad since every one around them started pairing up to slow dance.

She tilted her head on the side and joined her hands on his nape with a sort of defiant expression, and he did the same, pulling her close as he embraced her with both arms.

She laughed, so close to him he could feel the warmth of her breath on his face.

He closed his eyes as he leaned in to inhale her perfume, of sea salt and sand, with the soft zesty trace of sweat underneath. Inebriated, he followed the scent closer until he was nuzzling her neck and he felt her shiver as she laughed.

He started to apologise but she stopped him with a shake of her head. «What for?»

«I...I don’t know. Is this… right?» He hesitated. «We don’t even know each other and-»

«What’s your name?» she interrupted him.

«Eddard,» he replied instantly. «Stark,» he added after a moment.

«I’m Ashara Dayne. Nice to meet you, Eddard Stark.» She grinned. «Now we know each other.»

She laughed, swinging them around. In the movement, her hair tumbled down from one shoulder, revealing the milky skin underneath. For once, he didn’t even think as he leaned in again to place a soft, tentative kiss on her jaw as his hand brushed on her shoulder to her arm.

«How bold,» she whispered jokingly. Her eyes were big and dark, their purple hue deepened by the strobe lights. Her skin looked extraterrestrial in shades of blue and green. He leaned closer, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and caressing her cheek with his thumb.

«But I think you can get bolder,» she said. She was breathing fast through her slightly parted lips. He wondered briefly if they’d be as soft as they looked, but he shrugged the question away with a half laugh as he reached down to kiss them.

He felt her smiling against his mouth as she responded, leaning in enthusiastically, her hands still around his neck to hold him place as she explored his mouth with a hunger he hadn’t expected.

They parted when the song finished and the music slowly resumed her fast pace. They were both smiling and slightly out of breath.

«Let’s get out of here,» she urged him all of a sudden, dropping her hands and grabbing his again.

«And go where?» he asked as she started pulling him through the crowd again, pointing towards one of the seven doors opening in the hall.

She shrugged. «Out.» And kept going. She didn’t turn or stop until they were out of the ballroom and into the foyer of the house.

There, she turned to look at Eddard. «Have you seen the lake?»

He shook his head. «Not yet. We came from the north.»

«Let’s go then,» she said happily and set off again, dragging him as a child guides her mother into a toy store, out through the door and the garden, walking so fast she was almost running.

Any hesitation he could have was lost in the strength of her grip on his hand. He watched her long hair, dark as the night around them, tumble on her shoulder and mirror the swing of her long skirt. He felt her scent, strong even in the open, mixed with that of the freshly cut grass and the moist soil under it and the night flowers, sign of the early spring blooming in rich blue patches all around.

«Follow me,» she urged, leaving his hand to hold up his dress and sprinting into a run.

Eddard’s feet started running before he even told them to, and a sudden thought struck him like lighting as he chased after her, the startling realisation that even though he only knew her name and her scent, he’d follow those laughing purple eyes to the end of the world.

  


  


  


  


 


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